Top 10 Web Based RSS Readers, Plus Some

Google Reader is now getting shut down, and a lot has happened in the world of RSS readers since this article was first published in 2010. Check out our brand-new article on the best apps to replace Google Reader, which has a ton of apps you should try out as well as tips for moving your feeds, favorites, and more to new services.

Using a web-based RSS reader allows you to keep up with your online reading, even as you move from computer to computer. Some even offer mobile versions so that you can keep up to date on your phone. There are a variety of different RSS readers available, with different features that you may find useful.

Here are the top ten web-based RSS readers collected from around the web.

One of the best-known web-based RSS readers, Google Reader has been available since 2005. Because of its age, there are some benefits to using it — not only has Google continued developing it, but there are many user-created plugins that can transform Google Reader, especially if used in Firefox. Google has also made it possible to read Google Reader on a number of platforms, including the Wii.

In addition to making getting feeds into Bloglines easy, the web-based reader offers a variety of ways to share and publish what you read. For instance, if you’re a blogger, you can easily transform the list of blogs in your Bloglines account into a blogroll. Another benefit of Bloglines is that it is a simple matter to import and export subscriptions.

As a personal aggregator, MySyndicaat has a few features not widely available. It can add keyword searches from Google or Yahoo to the content you see just as easily as an RSS feed. You can also filter the content you receive to make sure that you get the most relevant content and eliminate duplicates.

Not quite a traditional RSS reader, MyAlltop still makes reading multiple blogs easier. Alltop acts as a sort of directory of blogs and news sites and, as you’re browsing, you can add sites you’d like to keep an eye on to MyAlltop. When you visit your personalized page, you get the last few updates from each site that you’ve added. If you want to keep track of a site not already listed on Alltop, you can submit it. It may or may not make it on to the site quickly, depending on the site in question.

With a clean interface, NewsIsFree allows you to quickly browse headlines, find sources for breaking news and read feeds. The web-based reader also offers a variety of premium services, ranging from $25 to $75 a year in price. Those services include email and text message alerts for certain kinds of tools, blogging tools and the NewsMap tool which allows for a reduction of information overload.

You can set up push notification to Jabber or other tools with Superfeedr. This tool is a little more technical than other RSS readers, but it’s capable of accepting RSS and Atom feeds, parsing them and sending you the new entries.

To set up Fever, you need your own server — but once you’ve got it up and running, you’ll have access to one of the most customizable RSS readers out there. You can change settings based on the folders you assign feeds to, have items ranked in order of how ‘hot’ they are in your reader and far more.

Officially a start page, Netvibes has all of the functions of a full-fledged RSS reader. You can customize the site and use its widgets to make the most out of the information you get from your RSS feeds. However, it’s not the best option if you’re planning to add a huge number of RSS feeds.

Organizing a long list of feeds can be difficult, but Collected makes it easier. You can take RSS feeds and merge them into collections through the site, letting you read all the coverage for certain blogs or certain topics in one go. You can organize collections around anything: topics, a specific person, groups and more.

You can watch live updates on any topic you care to follow on Lazyfeed. The reader is meant to reduce the time you spend looking for new information, as well as the information overload you can experience with many RSS readers. You don’t even have to add individual feeds; instead, it’s just a matter choosing the topics you really want to know about. However, if you want to make sure you never mis a new post from a specific blog, Lazyfeed may not be the best tool for the job.

Price: Free

Final Thoughts

There are new web applications being unveiled every day, some of these being web-based RSS readers. This certainly isn’t a comprehensive list, but if you’re looking for a web-based RSS reader — these are great ones to start with.

If you use (or know of) a web-based RSS reader that you think is fantastic and isn’t listed here, please share it with us in the comments and it could be added to this list.

Reader Submissions

As encouraged above, a few readers have mentioned a few more options. Keep them coming!

Feedly isn’t quite a web-based RSS reader but it is browser based. Feedly takes the bland and boring Google Reader and organizes your feeds into a magazine style reading experience. Feedly also grabs your Twitter feed for some additional sidebar content. For you Google Reader users out there, this is a must have! Submitted by Corvida, LeGaS and Xander — thanks!

Like Feedly, Helvetireader isn’t quite a web-based RSS reader but a userscript for modifying the design of Google Reader through your browser. Helvetireader has a wonderfully minimalistic design so you can focus on what you’re reading — your feeds. Submitted by Jason — thanks!

The thing that stopped me moving to Google Reader (from offline reader Vienna) was the fact that it is – how to put it? – pig-ugly. Fortunately Helvetireader (http://helvetireader.com/) hugely improves the whole experience.

Just went back to this article today to share it with a friend on Twitter who was looking for an alternative reader than Bloglines or Reader. The thing I want to say in this comment is Thumb-Up to the integration of reader suggestions into the article. And not just slapping them either but giving them a bit of a write up as well.

Great list…I am using Google reader from past few years but i will give netvibes a try as many people told me its good.

LordK

August 29th

I looked at these sites; I looked at many other reviews; I googled “elegant rss reader”, “minimalist rss reader”, “clean rss reader” and… couldn’t find anything that doesn’t have this Windows 3.1 style… Please, have a look at the pictures on this site: http://legistyles.com/ (specially the second and third one). It is actually possible to have something REALLY clean, elegant and minimalist. I don’t need social features; I don’t need the friends of the friends of my dog knowing what I am reading; I don’t need the app knowing better than I which feed I should read; I don’t need colors; I am merely looking for a web-based rss-reader absolutely elegant with no other feature than displaying feeds with great care to typographical considerations. Do you know anything online looking a little like the pictures on the link above?

Nice list of readers, I would like to add another free web based rss reader http://www.rssphere.com , What I like about it is that I can create rss template that will hold unlimited urls so one widget provides many different feeds and many others useful features.

Sad

December 2nd

Too bad Google Reader got assimilated by Google+… now you are forced to share RSS stories as part of a collective, rather than just as an individual web page (and IM friends). It seems that selecting RSS feed stories must somehow annoy lawyers, since it replicates possibly “bad” content on a different page without linking. There isn’t really a good online alternative with this feature unless you share through Facebook from within some external service, but that seems the same as the Google+ integration. Now our technology is homogenized due to a lack of creativity.

I’ve been working on a Feed reader called FeedStream (http://feedstream.co). It emphasizes the images in articles as a way to browse for articles to read. Check it out and let me know what you think in our Feedback form!

Hey, useful article and better responses
I’m quitting using Feedly because the only way to log in to it is with a gmail account which in instance leaves you already logged in for every other Google service around including tracking of your web history and so on (that’s why while I use Gmail I access my mail from Kmail).
I know there’s an option to make Google stop registering your web history but you’re still traced in every other service they are involved, directly or not.
It’s sad Google being a cool company with cool products puts their nose on everything but’s worse to have tied to it to use certaing products.

Thumb down for Feedly – now researching all other options referred her!

Thanks for the list. I have been looking for a web-based RSS reader, but didn’t want to use Google reader. I’m tired of Google owning the whole internet, and have been looking for alternatives to some of their products.

brunbär

July 27th

Netvibes is decent, but their mobile version is FUBAR. That’s a deal breaker for me. If only the Greader igoogle gadget could be used in Netvibes as a widget, I’d be happy.

Found this while searching for alternatives now that the highly valued Google Reader is getting the axe. You’d better amend your post. My Syndicaat would not let me register. I am just Super Pissed at google right now.

I love Gg reader because I can not consult it for a few days, and it keeps ALL of the unread topics in memory. Also, it does not select part of the feeds (some rss readers are just displaying 10-20 feeds only, Gg Reader displays all of them).

How could I replace Gg reader ?

PS : As a physicist, my main use of Gg Reader was (well, it still IS) to follow new scientific articles publications. As an example, arXiv.org has up to hundreds new articles everyday (see e.g. http://arxiv.org/rss/quant-ph) updated at one time of the day (around 3:00 in GMT+0). Some days, I simply has no time to read all these new feeds, and I prefer to postpone consultation for the week-end for instance (when there are no update of the feeds). How can I replace Gg reader doing all this beautiful tasks it did for simplifying my life for the last 5 years ? Any suggestion is welcome